If they can open the magic door and go in and out of it at will to wherever they need to go, why didn't they just bring Santa back to the library, then open the closest door to the North Pole/Northern Lights? I might've thought that the Library can't have non-Librarian staff in it, but if that were the case, it wouldn't have been able to be attacked in the first episode.

Now, usually, I would just write that off as "Because TV", but I had to give you a hard time. LOL Other than, I loved it! I'm actually glad it wasn't that simple, as we would have missed a fantastic episode! Keep them coming!! <3

Was there a scripted reason why Santa didn't get his hat back as soon as they got on the plane, that maybe got cut? My inner "story sense" felt that it was important as soon as I saw that it didn't happen and later Santa says (roughly)"I've been separated from my talisman for too long".

I understand you want to get it on DuLac's head in the cargo hold, but they could have conned him into taking it from Santa.

I Love Bruce Campbell as Santa. That made my week. I will admit that I could have lived without the third person. I get how it was a plot device to verbally distinguish all the different aspects of Santa (Nicholas/Odin), but it was a bit grating. Unless your plan was to make me sympathize with Baird, in which case, bravo sir.

The l337 speak Xmas on the plane nose was hilarious though.

I would love to hear stories of backstage on this episode. I imagine much mischief was to be had given the existing cast and your guest star. I was a little sad that there were no Laroquette/Campbell scenes; I guess that would have been too much awesome shoved in one set.

It is late, so I will ruminate on questions and come back if anything else pops to mind.

So whose idea was it that Santa is collecting the world's goodwill and the "presents" that he brings everyone is that he gives the goodwill back to us? Yours? Paul's? A Joint Efforts Production? Totally brilliant. Also glad to see Frakes back, there is something the combination of his direction, the writing team's work, and the actors that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

"morgana would be proud"? du lac / of the lake? arthur's crown? something going on there? also, is lamia the original snake in the brotherhood of the snakes? mythologically speaking, y'know. when jenkins seemed bemused at the thought of du lac dying from a fall from a plane, i was reminded of "silverado" -- "jake? fell off his horse?" ha. ok, thanks!

What did Jake tell his family about why he's not with them for the holiday? (And, for that matter, why he moved? Cassandra, Baird, and Ezekiel all seem pretty solitary, but Stone obviously has a lot of ties back in Oklahoma, and people who would want some kind of explanation for his absence.)

Please, please, please have Stone be gay. This isn't a question, just a hope. But Kane is so good at playing against-type while playing to-type, and it would totally work with what we've seen of his characters arc so far (and while I loved Leverage all of the major on-screen romances were hetero)

(In the FWIW department, the Willamette Valley stays green a good chunk of the year. While we do get snow storms every few years, most winters it at worst just gets drizzly and gloomy here; I just saw the forecast and we're due for rain and 46 F temps on Christmas. The nearest place to get driving-through-snow scenes would be Mount Hood.)

O2STK stands for "Organization to Secret to Know". The secretive group was created by fellow TV producer/writer/creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach for his amazingly fun and wild comic and TV series "The Middleman" (sadly gone far too quickly). If you like the fun of The Librarians and Leverage, you'll find a kindred cousin (and Mark Shepard!) in The Middleman.

Now for my question: On Leverage, I remember you (and Dean and Chris) always had a one-word theme for each season of the show (e.g. "Consequences"). Assuming there's one for this first season of The Librarians, what's the word, and why?

Bruce was fantastic! He snuck in a few really subtle ho ho hos and just struck a really good tone overall.

Loved the moment, after the bar fight, when Kane put the icebag up to his eye, then turned toward the camera. Also loved that he got an opportunity to channel Elliot twirling the scissors & the statue. And the cockney stuff!

All these characters are growing on me very quickly.

Caught the line Jenkins let slip about him (and DuLac) being something other than human. Interesting. Does that mean Jedson and Charlene are something other than human, too?

By the way, is DuLac an intentional reference to the lady "of the lake" from the King Arthur myth?

I think my biggest question was how the heck did you manage to shoot this episode with all the inevitable laughter going on? (I know the answer is that you have professionals working here, but they had to step it up for this one.)

Actually, Calla, in the Arthurian mythology, iirc, Lancelot's traditional surname was "Du Lac." Could be an explanation for his particular obsession with Arthur's crown and why he went after it first in his effort to return magic to the world (and under his control). Might also be another reason he sent Lamia after Cal... other than the whole boss delegating thing. I can't imagine Excalibur having much of anything but enmity for Lancelot.

I know Christian said he wasn't the one who got stitches this episode. Can we still have a CK Injury Counter in the post games? And given the tweet CK responded to, maybe an RR Inury Counter as well...

Where did the bit about the mistletoe, holly, and poinsettia poison come from? Just threw together the traditional Christmas plants, or is there something like rowan and red thread at play?

1. I like how everyone got their Christmas wish. All 3 LITs were explained but you let us be smart enough to know that Eve got her wish of saving the people with the hope she had lost. 2. on a side note I could not help but wonder what would happen if Eliot Spencer ever met Col. Baird around Christmas time. Who would glare and growl the most. 3. Did we see a foreshadowing of Lamia changing sides? What was the reason she does it as NOT Santa was hinting at.4. How special of a cowboy does Lamia think Stone is. That was a very sexually tense way of saying it.

You said in your previous post that Ezekiel and Jake will never be friends. Is that because Jake values trust a heck of a lot and Ezekiel's a thief? It would be great if you could delve a little deeper into that, if it doesn't involve spoilers. (It may be because I'd really like Jake to call him Zeke at one point, like he called Cassandra 'Cassie'). Also, how many takes occurred while Ezekiel was Santa!Ezekiel? John Kim was amazing, and that Australian accent has definitely added to the character. Hoping we get some back story on him soon. Thanks for making a great show!

Thanks so much for answering my last question (I am very glad the show isn't doing the exact same thing as Leverage.) I know this takes a lot of time and you totally don't have to do it. I mentioned this on twitter but again, I'm really glad the hope montage had the bit about the Muslim protesters. (Whose idea was it?)As a Muslim who doesn't do Christmas I loved getting to learn more about Santa and the goodwill twist was great!

For my actual question: We've seen that Lamia may not be out for power the same way Dulaque is. Will we get to see more of her reasons for doing the whole Bad Guy thing? Thanks!

Just a plot point I found interesting. Greg S. also hit upon it, but why didn't they get the hat off Jones even before they met back up with Santa? I mean, it was hilarious and extremely well-played by John Kim, but yanking it off his head before he talked the pilot into going home would've solved a big problem (of course, Cassandra appears to be lacking a bit of common sense, so there is that).

And I adore these characters every bit as much as I adored the Leverage characters. You have a knack I envy!

I'm really enjoying the telephone collection at the Library. (Dog and bone in cockney--I looked it up!) Excellent job by the production design team on the holiday decorations in this episode. I especially enjoyed the bar set. Kudos to the costume team, too!

Rather than wonder how the sleigh flies without Santa, I found myself fretting that he won't get it back. Can you say, or would that be a plot spoiler?

If we get a season 2, I hope we get to see Bruce Campbell as Santa again. And that we get to see Gretchen. Any casting fantasies yet?

I've been wondering which of the LITs would cover languages. We know Stone speaks Latin. Is he proficient in other ancient languages?

With all the hats you wear, I assume you know what you'll be seeing when an episode airs--the special effects, the scenes cut for broadcast, etc. Do the actors?

Does Ezekiel have any gaps in his thief skill set, or was the Library interested in him because he has the complete package? (Which raises the question, what is the complete package?) I can see him neglecting the long con because he doesn't have the patience/see the need for it. And despite his agility in the labyrinth episode, I don't see him being that physically disciplined. So no navigating laser grids in a catsuit, or hurling himself off a building. Except for BASE jumping? Maybe BASE jumping.

Was it only on the extended version of the premiere that Eve said to Ezekiel "I've seen _both_ your FBI files"? He would obviously have one file as a notorious criminal. The most obvious reason for him to have another is if he were an informant, a la Neal Caffrey...

Loved the episode! Bruce Campbell was a joy. One thing did stick out, though: I noticed that the editing seemed a little choppy in spots. There were some continuity errors, and then in the scene at the airport with the pilot the transitions between the two-shots and over-the-shoulder of Ezekiel was just... jarring. Was there a time crunch to get this episode in the can due to actor availability, or last-second reshoots, or some other factor?

Who got the stitches in the scene where Stone and Eve were tossing around the statues? Love the show, it has surpassed all my expectations. and my expectations were high!! Bruce Campbell was awesome, but Christian Kane is the best! I am one of his Kaniacs! I can hardly wait to hear Stone's backstory! Please tell him to be more careful, we LOVE that he does his own stunts, but we don't want him to injure himself every time! You are a great writer and I can't wait to see more of what y'all have in store for us!

Just wanted to mention I'm really enjoying Matt Frewer's just this side of going off a paleo diet on that delicious carb filled scenery performance. Would've loved a Frewer/Campbell/LaRoquette scene, just to see which one would manage to steal it from the others.

1) Is Frewer getting to ab lib, as I've read he has a tendency to do?

2) Any reason the Serpents seem to be against using ranged weapons? When both Lamia and Dulac pulled out a knife and sword, I was half expecting Stone or Baird to do an Indiana Jones pistol pull at 'em.

Love #TheLibrarians! Full of humour, education, good ol' puzzles with some mystery thrown in, and the MAGIC...an excellent family show and on at the perfect time! 6pm MST for my family's Sunday night entertainment; great way to finish the weekend and start the week ;) It's wonderful that there is live tweeting, all sorts of info and Q&A's..lots of support for everyone! It takes a village....my question is this...How on EARTH do you and everyone else keep up?? Ideas, props, social media, family, friends...WOW you are all amazing! You bring it all together sooo well! One more question..How long, on average, does it take to bring an episode together? Excluding Santa's episode....that one must have left everyone in stitches! (and taken 3x as long ;) ) I know it did mine hahaa

1)Given that Christian was wearing a hat for the whole episode was he hiding some kind of injury, I remember when Eliot would get injured and filming was out of order he would wear a hat until a time came to explain that injury, or did he just had bad hair and wanted to hide itBTW I love his hair cut looks so much better more like Lindsey 2)Were you tempted to give him a slightly girlie name to go with Lindsey and Eliot?

I'm hoping to see her own the enormity of what she tried to do and what she actually did do. After all, she didn't break with the evil minions of evil after they evilled outrageously in front of her. She broke with them when they put her in a cell and made it clear that they weren't going to reward her for helping break the world.

Even so, she still apparently thinks that not only was she justified, she's not at any kind of moral disadvantage because anyone else would have done the same, to the point of being self righteous about it.

Right now, she's reading a little manic pixie nightmare girl to me, and it's making me a little uncomfortable that the other characters seem to be taking her on own terms instead of like a useful but dangerous wildcard like early Parker.

I know it's early days, but I would love to see this addressed a little more down the road, because I feel as if I'm meant to be charmed by her character and so far, I'm not.

In the mean time, I truly do appreciate that Jake made it clear that he doesn't trust her, and that Ezekiel sees his own (lack of) moral compass in her (although I wish they hadn't framed it in terms of their own trust issues).

1. Alright. You dropped a 'magical worlds' hint in a 103 answer. That got me thinking about Jim Butcher's Nevernever as did, oh lots from the Santa episodes. I know your run at the Dresden Files TV show predates Dresden v. Santa, but did you pull your Dresden Files Notebook from Cold Storage when you started looking researching for The Librarians? Is there 7 year old frozen buffalo in The Librarians' chili? And if so can we get Paul Blackthorne as a guest star for S2?

2. What is Jake's pseudonym? Do we get to know that or is it like Sophie's name?

3. I'm thinking the mistletoe dart came from the Baldr myth, what about holly and poinsettia?

4. What did Ezekiel steal for Baird's Birthmas gift?

A. Because this is a comment not a question. Thank you for giving Bruce Campbell a stick.

B. You spent the pilot burning down the previous template. At the end of all but one season of Leverage you partially or completely did the same thing. Which I appreciate, by the way. The lack of evil cliffhangers or rushed wrap-up was refreshing and very cool. Even if I bet it's contributing to the "How do we do this?" block in front of a Leverage reunion. But this time you did it in the pilot. You really have some sort of specific masochism involving burning boats, don't you?

6. Did you have to give the CGI guys a crash course in math and physics? Admittedly, I'm not qualified to judge, but either your preemptive dare about checking Cassandra's math shut them up or or the visual aids have been spot on.

C. I am having so much fun with all the hints. Ezekiel's other file, Jenkins' 'we're', Lamia and Santa. Thank you so much. It's like the season is one big fair-play mystery with each episode as a mini-mystery. Also, Arthurian references make a great drinking game, but it airs on Sunday dammit.

7. Kane, Jeffries, and Cockney was hilarious. Are you still using Mary Mack as your dialect coach?

D. Just where did Lamia hit Stone? A weird relationship, huh. I think you're understating it a bit there.

@Tina2Tired There are doors at the North Pole? "They can track it if you stop moving" and Rogers screaming about the fun train.

I'm super, *super* happy that all of this is back. It's a super fun show already and I honestly can't wait to see what y'all have (had? Since it's already been written/shot) up your sleeves. :) Ok, just a few questions/theories..

1) Is Christian one of those 'tends-to-point-with-his-middle-finger' dudes or does he really enjoy flipping off the camera to see if he can get away with it?

2) Methinks that Du Lac worked for the Library at some point in time.....and knew Jenkins fairly well....

3) I'm pretty sure that's Flynn's desk has some sort of connection to the now disconnected Library (and not just in an annex sense), although I'm not really sure as to how...

4) I *adored* Jones' ability to flip back and forth between being super high on Christmas and his normal, thiefy self. Highly entertaining and well, well done.

6) Is Eve more of a Mother Hen or Annoyed Older Sister Who Secretly Loves Them All?

7) Is Cassandra's personality going to get a little more..unhinged as the season wears on thanks to the brain grape?

8) Wardrobe was on point this episode--do you have Nadine back?

9) Jenkins is my favorite cantankerous old man. I adore him. Will we see him get to save the day/one of the LITs as the season goes on?

10) (Last one, I promise!) Baird seems to have a super strong sense of justice//right/wrong...but still seems to adore Jones. Is it because he's part of the team that she has to protect? Or because she genuinely sees good in him?

1) Was there any hesitance toward having "cast member wears a literal act-out-of-character hat" as a subplot so early in the series' run?

2) In the 101/102 post-game post, you mentioned "characters are lenses, and so you should build them in diametrically opposed pairs in order to best showcase your themes." I'm always excited to hear you talk storytelling theory (and will be picking up your hypothetical book day one), but I think that particular one just clicked with me. To check my understanding: make sure characters who are likely to be paired up together have at least one major difference in worldview from one another, and if that difference in worldview is centered around one of the major themes you're trying to explore in your work, any scene with those two characters has instant conflict, a handhold to kick off banter, and an injection of thematic resonance, regardless of the scene's function in the plot?

3) How does Librariansverse Santa feel about Coca-Cola?

4) How do writer's-room-you and showrunner-you argue out how much magic to show on-screen to make the show suitably magical without straining the effects budget? Does an episode like this get away with fewer major effects sequences by virtue of having a mythological being like Santa front-and-center, or is there less pressure to seem overtly magical (or more pressure to stay under budget) as the show establishes itself and the season progresses? (Or did I totally misread this episode and it actually had more effects work than past episodes, just applied in places I wasn't looking as closely at?)

5) In a world where magic is explicitly symbolic (as opposed to one where it's portrayed as science-fiction-technology but with "arcane energy" replacing "dilithium crystals"), does the ease with which subtext becomes literal text pose more of an advantage or a disadvantage?

6) Cassandra in a story where her warnings of imminent danger go ignored/disbelieved—future episode, grounds for temporary expulsion from the writer's room for taking name-based symbolism too far, or myth already checked off the to-do list with the Serpent Society metaphorically whispering in her ear in 102?

1) Love to hear that you guys have left yourself notes to a) not be Warehouse 13 and b) not recreate Hardison/Eliot/Parker. I feel like one of the reasons Constantine failed was because they actively decided not to think about themselves in relation to SPN and define how they'd differentiate. The creators even said as much. They were "just going to do their own thing." That struck me as narrow. That said, you could do worse than to replace W13 since it's gone and was awesome.

3) I know Stone isn't supposed to trust Cassie, but he acts like someone who does. I think he's grounded her in every episode, and I find it tough to remember that there's supposed to be tension there because it requires attentiveness and care to step in like that.

4) Why didn't they take the hat off Ezekiel? At first I thought Cassie and Stone were just enjoying watching him dance with kids and bake cookies because it was funny. But then it actually started to interfere with the carrying out their plans, and they just left it on him.

Trying this again. Clearly the box is too tiny for me to see my own stupid. *g*

You got Bruce Campbell as Santa. Thank you for that genius move. This episode is being shown to the family as part of our yearly get-together.

I know you can't tell me Matt Frewer will be back, so I'm just telling myself that. He makes such an awesome badguy as well as a slightly oddball goodguy. Every show needs more Frewer.

I am enjoying all the regulars. You have Roxie on your show! It's great to see Rebecca Romijn on my tv again. Kane killed that last scene in episode 3. I've been watching him for ten years now and I've rarely seen him asked to dig that deep.

Will Jenkins ever join the gang in the field? How well does he know DuLac? I love the set! It's really lovely. All the lamps, they're fantastic! I noticed them right away.

I'm watching in real time, which is great. I was never able to do with Leverage. I'm dvr'ing it too. Do the numbers from Canada matter at all to TNT? Probably not, but no matter. I'm already budgeting for the dvd set.

Congrats on a great show. I'm looking forward to many, many more episodes.

1) Do the prop people enjoy finding strange phones for Jenkins to talk into? I am getting a kick out of the mish-mash of tech he employees.2) I am enjoying the fact that Lamia thinks she has a think with Stone (and who wouldn't?), I hope she pulls the katana on someone else later and Stone gets calls her on it.3)Loved Stone doing the British accent. Is there anything Kane can't do?4) Back to Lamia, are we supposed to read anything in her name? Or is it just a code name?5) I am honestly surprised at how much I am enjoying the show! I normally don't go for shows that are so silly out of the gate, but the actors plus knowing you are behind the wheel are making it work for me. Can't wait to see where it goes!

Another great episode! To paraphrase IO9, I love everything this show chooses to be. This was such a blast and still appropriately touching.

I have a couple of questions, as always :)

1) What do the Stone's think happened to their son/brother/uncle/cousin? Especially since the last time he was seen in town Stone was getting chased by ninjas and dragged off by a strange, ass kicking, blonde woman. Considering how much he didn't want to leave 10 years ago he seems pretty willing to leave now so (1.1) what's different now?

1.2) WRT the presents Stone was wrapping at the start of the episode: who were they for? His nieces/nephews or the team? Both?

2) How about Cassandra? Does she have family or friends in her life that need an explanation? At the very least I imagine she needs to find a new doctor.

3) Is Mrs. Clause also immortal in this mythology? I'd like to think she's the immortal avatar of something like creativity and she pops off twice a year for college finals to inspire all the nonsense essays written at the last minute. Mainly I don't want poor Santa to be widowed every 50 years or so. Way too sad.

4) Love the hat, but what inspired it as opposed to a more traditional Santa hat?

"We're" Ha! can't wait.

And on a personal note, I was born on Christmas day and I married a Norse Pagan and we both got a real kick out of this episode. (OOOOODIN! Christmas Eve!) It's like this show was made for us, and we appreciate the heck out of it, thanks again for all your hard work!

Thank you for the Librarians! I don't have Aussie cable so I bought a season pass on iTunes US. The show is so fun and enchanting :)

I flicked back to your previous blog posts to remind myself of the joy and sweat that went into Leverage, too, and you posted back in 2011 you wanted Game of Thrones to do well so you could make your magic show. So- are you high fiving the John of the past? Your magic show is brilliant. :)

1. It's been a long time since I've seen a "true meaning of Christmas" show, an I *really, really* like to see someone not care for Christmas *not* because they have Issues With Happiness, but because they're not Christian.

Or, in Eve's case, because they're so damn sick of never getting a real, personal birthday party, and they *always* get shorted on gifts. My Jewish husband and his brother both have birthdays between Xmas and New Year's, and trust me, it can make a person cranky with the Holiday Spirit.

2. I'm glad to see that your approach is more open than the standard, enough so that Muslim and pagan commenters here can feel validated.

3. I *love* the way Jake's character is developing. ryan_w_enslow, it looks to me as though Jake *is* canonically gay -- he's the one who's canonically in the closet, after all, who's been leading a double life. He's a fascinating character, and CK is doing a bang-up job with him.

4. At the moment, I feel as though the LITs are a little unbalanced, because we know more about Stone than the others and his character is so compelling. I hope we can get more about the others' backstories to even it out a bit.

5. The way Jake acts to anchor Cassandra, to help her find her focus, very much reminds me of the Sentinel/Guide dynamic from the classic show, The Sentinel. I'm moderately confident that you won't make it into a Romance, but I look forward to see where you go with it, and how it interacts with Jake's Trust Issues.

6. Did you get advice from a native speaker for the Cockney rhyming slang scene? It was *awesome*.

This show seems a little more family oriented than Leverage, which was family-friendly but involved convoluted plans, complicated crimes and deep villains. In The Librarians the baroque details sort of decorate the plot rather than form part of the structure. So my question is: Is the show delibrately aimed (as in originally pitched) to be as entertaining to bright ten year-olds as it is to those of us who have an inner 10 year-old or has it emerged that way due to the films, stories and everything else lined up?

As a hopelessly devoted fan of Leverage, I'm trying very hard to view The Librarians with an open mind and not make too many comparisons. So far it's been working and I'm enjoying the show on its own merits. Admittedly, the Christmas episode did test my resolve. The scenes of Eve delivering the gift of hope had a very Leverage-y feel to them. At first I wrote it off as just being the similar theme of doing good and helping people, but something else kept poking at me. After the 3rd viewing I finally realized what it was. The music was the same as was used in the episode flashbacks towards the end of The D.B. Cooper Job. I know Joeseph LoDuca is the composer for both shows, but I was wondering if the use of that particular bit of score was an intentional call back to Leverage or just the right piece to evoke the emotion of the scenes?

If Jake and the others are Librarians in training, per se, is that the reason Jake Stone can't make the map appear when he throws the sphere up in the air, or does it have more to do with coordination/know how?

Also, how do you choose which bits of history/artifacts to use in an episode? What kinds of research do you do when preparing to write these episodes?

If Santa is a timeless avatar of goodwill, why is his redistribution of that good will on 24 December, an arbitrary date on the Gregorian calendar, instead of the winter solstice? The reason why Christmas and the new year and bunches of other celebrations occur at this particular time of year is because it's when the sun "renews itself" after the solstice and the days get longer. So wouldn't it make more sense for not-calling-him-Santa to do his thing on the solstice?

Love the work Christian Kane is doing on the edge of the scenes. Hearkens back to your comments about Leverage actors being always aware when on camera & how much that enriches the scene. But how much work time is taken up by Christian Kane completely cracking up his fellow actors?

Dean Devlin has said that all the episodes would have extended versions on iTunes. Not so for this episode :( Any particular reason for that? I'm sure there had to be some great things that got cut for broadcast airing.

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